It's only art until someone masturbates to it.

Whelp, not art now. Better change the category.

The line between art and porn has always been blurry, though. A lot of nude 'Venus' pictures were commissioned during the renaissance and baroque period for private chambers and bedrooms. They've for sure been masturbated to.

And check out my boy Boucher

Leda and swan... filttttttttthy

Oh, I love that swan. You know that swan was one of the eras top gynecological specialists. He just followed his passion and it took him to the top.

You do know that the swan was Zeus and it was totally rape, right?

Yeah, I do. I did my degree in Classical literature with a ton of courses on the later representations of that literature. Or as it's also known - The Rapey Adventures of Zeus.

This comment needs both a spoiler alert and a trigger warning.

Sorry, I was a little thrown by your apparent affection for the swan.

I just love this depiction. He's just got a little curious expression on face as he investigates the naked woman. Also, I've know swans in real life and I know the next thing the little fucker is going to do is grab a beak-ful of pubic hair and run off squawking.

Also of course the artist is male, so y'know, the male gaze etc etc.

Oh, yes. Boucher pretty much only did commissions for pieces for gentlemen's bedrooms and private chambers. These were pieces for men to look at in private. He was very popular.

I want to commission someone to do an after picture where the swan has a mouthful of hair.

DeviantArt is standing by.

#swanpornart

It was probably just a clever ruse to sell togas.

i was very confused how the mattress was bare during sex and sheets on afterwards. Like, that's what sheets are for.

That's certainly true, but this is kind of the opposite. Her intent seems to be to make a serious statement about rape- I suppose she must have anticipated that it would end up as fapping material.

Yes. I think she probably does. I suspect the fact that material she considers as violent being fap material probably underlines her point about sexual violence.

...I was gonna watch this, then I read the following patronizing, extremely self-absorbed comment in her interview, and decided not to.

Yeah, I mean, when people call me "Mattress Girl" I find that really infuriating. It's like, okay great, so you think that I'll never progress beyond that point. That I'll be a "Mattress Girl" rather than a living, breathing person who has the ability to change.

Seriously. Fuck that noise.

Well she might have a point. Of course from now on she might be known as 'Porn Video Girl' and her wish will have come true.

I stand by my statement. It's human nature to associate people with the work they've done, and not the work they haven't done yet. I can understand her being a bit frustrated that she might be pigeonholed, but where the ever loving FUCK does she get off reading in all this shit about people deciding she's not a living, breathing person or whatever? That's just narcissistic to the point of being disturbing.

I expect nothing less from an art graduate from an ivy league school. Seriously, who goes to an ivy league school for an art degree? I'd assume she has highly indulgent parents- which would also explain the narcissism.

She's the child of two Manhattan psychologists. This is pretty much the result that I'd expect from such a union.

I don't know what happened to her. I really don't, none of us do. What I do know is that student conduct review boards are not real courts, don't have the same standards that real courts do, and by putting one's trust in that (frankly bogus) process, mostly what you guarantee is that by the time it's over it'll be too late to file a police report that anyone takes seriously.

But whatever happened, by filtering her shared experience through multiple layers of what look for all the world like premeditated stunts I don't know what she's doing to her own credibility, what she's saying about herself or anyone else. And I'm a pretty receptive audience. To the rest of the braying masses she must seem totally nuts. She made an amateurish video in which she fucked a total stranger she met 2nd-hand via a fetish site in a consensual portrayal of consensual sex turned non-consensual to ... uh ... what?

Add that to the strong body of evidence suggesting her entire mattress stunt was one big act of slander and this doesn't paint a very good picture for her character.

I don't know that there's a 'strong body of evidence'. It's more of a 'he said she said' situation. The dude certainly is adamant about his innocence. Maybe she made it all up as fodder for her art project, but I tend to think the actual situation is something like Rashomon.

The evidence comes from the text message records he's submitted as part of his lawsuit against the school for allowing that stunt to continue. It chronicles Sulkowicz essentially making booty calls to the dude she's accusing of raping her after the alleged incident.

All this was after he was called before the school's disciplinary board and found not guilty of any wrong doing. Hence why this whole debacle is being framed as an "art project".

True. Her detractors will be like "She was in a glorified porn video".

It's an interesting video in terms of showing how things can change and when sex can become non-consensual. It's a horrible video in terms of lack of foreplay, the dude was rapey, hella ugly, and he left the room naked.

Partially I feel like she's really working the white knight angle in that she's fairly decent looking and the dude was a bit of an ogre. The downside of that is that I was like scolding the screen "what are you doing?! don't sleep with that dude! Please be more selective!" and that's really not meant to be the take-away here.

I'm not really sure who her target audience is (women's education? Horny dudes? etc) with this video ... but I suppose it's more of a statement about what is tolerated on college campuses. It's also an interesting approach in that people tend to hide experiences like this and she seems to be dealing with it head on - I assume with the intent of creating discussion around the issue.

The upside, I suppose, as a performance piece, it gets the job done appropriately and there's a nice hook (check out the naked chick). I thought the aftermath was kind of thoughtful in that it didn't just end after the incident (life goes on and I assume it's often the aftermath that's difficult to deal with, dating/trust issues etc) but I thought it was a bit over reliant on girl-crying. Like I can see dad's expectantly fingering the blades of their machetes everywhere as their daughters go off to college.

That said I'm not sure how beneficial the video is... part of me feels like she's cashing in career/activist-wise and the other part is impressed at the ballsiness of it. I suppose public debate/buzz/society-wise this piece helps prompt national discussion-- and as an artist, I suppose that's really one of the higher/noble goals? I thought it was, as a video, an excellent use of the medium, in conveying emotion and experience in a way, perhaps, words can't.

I thought the multiple 'surveillance camera' angles was clever in conveying the idea of this being a crime scene as much as a sex scene. But 'voyeur' porn does this too.
I think the whole thing is undermined by the fact that she herself is in it, the sex is real but the assault part isn't (as stated on the page). How disturbing is it if we know everything we see is 'consensual'? I watched it and found myself not asking questions about consent and rape, but how it was for the dude to be boning her and then pretending to smack her around. I just can't get past the production aspects of it and I'm even sympathetic to her cause. And yes, I hate to say it, but somehow this did make it more fappable. If I had even the slightest notion it was real, not fappable at all. No siree.

I prefer my rape porn to involve tentacles and little sailor outfits.

Now that I don't hate her anymore, I broke down and decided to watch it.

...he's supposed to be ugly? If that dude's ugly, then trust me, I'm a monster. A disgusting monster with a tiny, tiny penis.

:(

Sorry, I've been going to the rock climbing gym lately. Everyone (but me) looks like a fucking greek statue come to life. I think my scale is skewed.

Take it easy dude. It's the new era of the dad bod.

I have a dad bod, if your dad is Santa Claus.

I knew a girl who was into that. Sadly, she's in Japan.

Don't worry, there are plenty more in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and North Florida.

Of course the girls down there have Santa-dad bods too.

Should make her the waifuu

I watched it, and it did get very, very uncomfortable when he started slapping her and when he took the condom off and went into her ass. When she started whimpering was when I got really ... what's a good word for it... squicked(?) out. Unsettling for me, apparently not for most of the rest of the commenters here. Also, don't read the comments on her site.

NEVER read the comments on her site.